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LD Acres Electric Erin
  Erin is one QUICK McNab. She has been known to literally rip a hole in the wind - if you can imagine!
  Form equals function, and Erin is built for speed with a stream line, athletic frame and a great hip.
  Erin is a daughter of LD Acres Move N Molly, by Lane's Bandit. Bandit comes from Jack Beddy's line of McNabs, in Chowchilla, CA.
  Erin is quite different than her mother Molly, in that Erin loves to be the center of fond attention & affection. Erin's motto is: Gotta Love Me! ...and we do. Although Erin is like a cuddly teddy-bear with her human family & friends; she is like a hammer to a nail when it comes to working livestock.
  Erin is a natural gatherer, head & heal dog who worked as a valuable team member with her mother Molly. Molly would gather and circle the herd clockwise, and Erin counter clockwise. Together they covered all angles. Molly worked strictly as a head/lead dog and Erin would cover the side and rear assuring that no one got out of line. When Molly was absent from the job, Erin picked up the pieces and worked head, side and rear.
  Since we sold our Angora Goat herd, Erin has now been introduced to bring in our Connemara pony herd. Quite different in all ways, than the Angora Goat, the Connemara pony requires a different style of presentation from Erin, and Erin must remain on her toes, remain quick, agile at all times. She also must turn on, and turn off her assertivness & speed quickly, differing to the degree of assertivness in which the herd needs and requires in order to retain completion of the task, all the while keeping everyone safe and hormony in communication, so to speak. Hand signals (from me) are used 99% of the time with words only spoken towards attention which needs to be addressed - such as back or easy. These are two examples of words which I have chosen, others may have different words, however what ever the word may be, the same word may not be used for different things. Back always means to back off completely. Easy always means to shift to a lower gear, so to speak.  I choose to use words ONLY when absolutely in need. Canine's do not use words in the wild - they communicate via body language in most every situation. Thus I strive to communicate every aspect of training visually (words very little)  - results have been very positive as long as visuals are clearly and correctly expressed.
  Erin's work with the herd has been increasingly positive, get in and job complete. Every now and then Erin is distracted by a friendly human visitor - yet is learning to first finish her job, then play and visit after I release her using the voice command, ok. Visitors are very welcomed & encouraged to observe, yet must not communicate verbally or non-verbally to Erin one iota - even and especially if Erin runs off track towards them - pretend to be a fence post to the on-coming.
  From the other side of the coin, the herd is compliant, albeit occasionally one desires to continue grazing and ignor, stubbornly - this is when I step in and encourage the pony to listen and comply. The herd does not have fear, yet does have respect for Erin. They trust Erin's approach as non-threatening yet communicating clearly that it is time to go back to the barn. This is entirely what is strongly desired - harmony - NOT cruelty!
  Erin is also a ball-a-holic and just the mention of the word *ball* fires Erin up. She is not only quick, but her cordination is priceless. It is rare that Erin will ever miss a catch, and will leap to astonishing heights to catch a ball.
  When the dragon flies are in abundance, they provide a great form of entertainment for Erin as she leaps continually into the air like popping, pop corn with the hopes of bringing one of those big dragon flies down! From a distance, this is quite amusing to watch, as one cannot see the dragon fly, but only Erin popping into the sky, over and over again.
  Erin is a fantasic friend, and we hope to continue to share many more years of our lives together.
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Erin "Gotta Love Me!"
Erin, approx. 3 weeks old
Erin, one year
Erin (young adult)
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Since May 5, 2004
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This page was last updated on: January 27, 2005

Questions? Comments? Please feel free to drop me